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Donna Deitch and Jane Lynch on DESERT HEARTS

Wanting to make a film about a lesbian relationship that didn’t end in tragedy, director Donna Deitch spent five years working on DESERT HEARTS. Its release in 1985 was a landmark moment in queer cinema. In this conversation, recorded in Los Angeles in 2017, Deitch and actor Jane Lynch discuss the making of the film and its significance for Lynch.

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Women in Love

DESERT HEARTS depended on the connection between its two lead actors, Patricia Charbonneau and Helen Shaver, and on their trust in director Donna Deitch. In the following program, made in New York in 2017, the actors and the director discuss the making of the film, the close bond they formed, and...

Remembering Reno

In the following conversation, filmed in Los Angeles in August 2017, director Donna Deitch, cinematographer Robert Elswit, and production designed Jeannine Oppewall discuss their collaboration in creating the look of DESERT HEARTS.

Fiction and Other Truths: A Film Abou...

Canadian author Jane Rule published the novel “Desert of the Heart” in 1964; it has come to be considered a landmark of lesbian fiction. The following excerpts from the 1994 documentary FICTION AND OTHER TRUTHS: A FILM ABOUT JANE RULE, by Lynne Fernie and Aerlyn Weissman, feature Rule discussing ...